41% of ICE Arrests Are People With No Criminal Record—Here’s Why That Matters
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and arrests are on the rise. This also means that new data is coming out to explore the people being detained. Under President Donald Trump’s guidance, ICE agents have rounded up thousands, and a large number do not have criminal records.
New data shows that undocumented people without criminal records are being targeted for arrest
Stories of ICE arrests are spreading through social media, and one common theme is coming forward. The Trump administration claimed that the mass deportation efforts would target those with criminal records.
“We’re going to concentrate on the worst of the worst,” Border Czar Tom Homan told The Sunday Times of London. “It’s going to be a lot different to what the liberal media is saying it’s going to be.”
Yet, new data shows that ICE agents are not following this promise from the federal government directly. Instead, ICE is targeting people without criminal records for arrest at a staggering number. According to NBC News, ICE arrested 4,422 people in the first two weeks of February, and 41 percent of them had no criminal record. The number is a staggering climb from the 28 percent of ICE arrests of people without criminal records during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The statistics of ICE arrests under the Trump administration should not be surprising. The federal government’s attempt to connect being undocumented with being a crime is blatantly false. Some officials are making claims that being in the United States as an undocumented person is a crime, but it is legally a civil violation.
“It’ll be a humane operation, but it’s a necessary mass deportation operation,” Homan told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News.
ICE is stepping up and expanding detention and arrest efforts
Communities are banding together to educate undocumented people about their rights. They are also coming together to keep people safe from the incoming immigration raids. In Los Angeles, ICE agents started to ramp up their efforts. There have been some reports of ICE agents knocking on doors and arresting people at their homes.
ICE widely used “knock and talks” before a judge restricted the practice in 2024. According to Judge Otis D. Wright II, the practice of knocking on someone’s front door and asking about their immigration status was unconstitutional. The practice of “knock and talks” benefitted ICE because, most often, they do not have judicial warrants. ICE agents are required to produce judicial warrants if attempting to enter a home to make an arrest. Without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, ICE has no jurisdiction or right to enter a home.
Communities are pushing back against ICE
Recently, ICE agents were spotted in Los Angeles, part of a new wave of operations in Southern California. Alerted activists showed up in communities to inform people of their rights, using megaphones to warn people in their homes.
This kind of education and civil disobedience doesn’t sit well with Border Czar Homan. He is upset that people have taken to educating people on their rights, and he is not hiding it.
